Method and apparatus for producing tufts from different yarns in longitudinal lines

ABSTRACT

Front and rear needle bars are provided with front and rear needles for inserting yarns into a backing material. An excess of front loopers are provided for the front needles and an excess of rear loopers are provided for the rear needles. The front loopers respectively face the rear loopers and are respectively aligned with each other. The needle bars are shifted laterally so as to provide longitudinal rows of tufts formed by the front needles providing spacing between the tufts of a longitudinal row which space is filled in by the tufts of rear needles.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/275,077,filed Jul. 14, 1994 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,588), which was acontinuation of application Ser. No. 08/066,780, filed May 24, 1993 (nowabandoned), which was a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/934,292,filed Aug. 24, 1992 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,434), which was acontinuation of application Ser. No. 07/653,766, filed Feb. 11, 1991(now abandoned).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to tufting machines and is more particularlyconcerned with an apparatus and method for producing tufts fromdifferent yarns in common longitudinal rows.

In the past, the tufting industry has long sought for an easy andefficient way of producing tufts from different yarn in selected single,longitudinal rows. Thus, stop needle machines were produced in which theneedles of the tufting machine were aligned longitudinally but wereselectively operated so that one needle sewed a portion of alongitudinal row while the other was stopped. Such machines wereimpractical for high speed tufting and were expensive to build, maintainand program.

Another form of prior art tufting machine which could produce tufts ofdifferent characteristics was the machine which had "cut-loop loopers."Such a machine had a cut pile looper with a spring clip which enabledthe yarn feed mechanism to control, by the amount of yarn feed to theneedle, whether the yarn formed a cut pile or a loop pile. Thesuccessive tufts in a longitudinal row, however, had to be from a singleyarn and precluded multicolor tufts from different yarns in a singlerow.

Another form of providing a multicolored appearance in a tufted productwas by producing high cut pile tufts in one row to overlie low loop pilein an adjacent row.

Still another method of tufting to produce a multicolored patterninvolved the use of laterally shiftable front and back needle bars whichenabled the needles of one needle bar to be moved so as to cooperate,selectively, with different laterally spaced loopers. All needles wereinserted into the backing material for each reciprocation, however, theneedles of one needle bar were always staggered with respect to theneedles of the other needle bar and the front loopers were staggeredwith respect to the rear loopers. In such prior art machines, the shiftof one needle bar with respect to the other, had to be a lateraldistance equal to at least two gauges of tufting. U.S. Pat. No.4,366,761 illustrates such a machine. The shifting by two gauges causesthe accumulation of excessive yarns in the back stitches. By having toshift one needle bar two gauges with respect to the other, thisprevented making a continuous diagonal row of tufts, using a selectedyarn or yarns. Therefore, a diagonal line of tufting in a tufted producthas had to appear as broken lines, formed by a succession of spaceddiscrete pin dots.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly described, the present invention includes a tufting machinehaving pairs of longitudinally aligned loopers for cooperating withlaterally shiftable needle bars. At times, the needles of one needle barare longitudinally aligned with the needles of the second needle bar.Also at times, there are an excess of loopers for each row of needles,some or all of which are longitudinally aligned. The loopers can have amore narrow gauge than the needles so that longitudinal rows of thebacking can be shared, thereby permitting a shift of a single gauge byeither needle bar. This single gauge, lateral shifting enables themachine to produce a wide variety of fabrics which include diagonal rowsformed of one or a plurality of yarns.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a tufting machinewhich can produce longitudinal rows of tufts, in which each longitudinalrow can contain cut and uncut tufts of different yarns.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machinewhich can tuft different sizes or types of yarn as loop or cut pile inthe same longitudinal row or rows.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machinewhich can provide one or more cut or looped tufts in adjacent rows.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machinewhich is capable of producing carpeting having a multitude of colors andtextured patterns achieved through varying the threading and varying theshift sequence of the needle bars.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand a process of tufting which requires no buried or hidden short loopsin order to produce patterned tufted fabrics which can contain cut tuftsand looped tufts of uniform or different heights and different coloredyarns.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting in which the tufted fabric retains a full densityof face yarn throughout the fabric.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting which will minimize the amount of yarn in the backstitches, due to shifting of the needle bars.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting in which the diagonals appearing in the pattern ofthe tufted fabric can be created by either a single or a plurality ofyarn or yarns of a color different from the other yarns in the fabric.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand process of tufting which will produce longitudinal rows of cut pilewith one, two, or three adjacent yarns and with loop pile yarns whichhave been shifted over the back stitch of the straight row or rows andvice-versa.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting which can produce adjacent longitudinal rows ofloop and cut pile without shifting of the fabric and which will retainthe maximum density of the face yarn of the fabric.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting which can obtain a tip sheared look (which, in theprior art, was achieved by shearing the high loops) without the extrastep of tip shearing and without any appreciable loss of yarn.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting which will produce a tufted fabric having auniformly, random tip sheared look.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting in which the needles can be shifted a single or amultiple of a single gauge, namely one, two, three or four gauges.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machinein which there can be longitudinal rows of loop pile and cut pile ofdifferent yarns and wherein the loop pile tufts are not thrust throughthe cut pile tufts.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting in which the gauge integrity of the resultingfabric is maintained.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting which will produce a tufted fabric having a wovenWilton appearance.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machinewhich can produce patterns and diagonals in a tufted fabric and stillrun at a standard tufting speed.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting which will produce patterns and diagonals in thetufted product and can still run off of beams which save space in theplant and reduce waste (both in the tubes and on the cones of thecreels) and are capable of making shorter rows, economically.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting in which the pattern produced in the face yarnscan be varied in color and texture or can be in texture only (cut pileand loop pile) or in color variations from cut pile with respect to looppile.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting which can be used for producing patterned goodsfrom different sizes or types of yarns in the loop tufts and also insize and type in the cut pile, whereby various colors of yarns may beused or various twist levels of different types of yarns may be used.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machinein which different mixes of needles can be arranged on a plurality ofneedle bars, the needles being grouped for example in three adjacentneedles on one bar for providing space capable of being filled in by theneedles of the other needle bar.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting which can make cut or uncut tufts in the centralportion of the fabric or produce pin dots in the central portion and allloops or all cut tufts in the borders of the fabric.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machineand method of tufting in which the center portion of the tufted fabriccan be all loop pile and the borders can be all cut pile or vice-versa.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent from the following description when taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings wherein like characters of referencedesignate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of a tufting machineconstructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view showing the two needle barcontrol members which respectively control the lateral shifting of theneedle bars of the tufting machine illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic horizontal sectional view of the needles and theneedle bars of the tufting machine shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but showing a different spacing ofthe needles in the two needle bars;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIGS. 3 and 4 and showing still anotherspacing of the needles of the two needle bars;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view showing yet another spacing ofsome of the needles and their associated loopers;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary schematic plan view of the face yarns in fabricproduced when the needles are arranged as shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary schematic bottom plan view of the fabricdepicted in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary schematic plan view of the face yarns in fabricproduced when the needles are arranged as shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary schematic bottom plan view of the fabricdepicted in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a fragmentary schematic plan view of the face yarns in fabricproduced when the needles are arranged as shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 12 is a fragmentary schematic bottom plan view of the fabricdepicted in FIG. 11.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now in detail to the embodiment chosen for the purpose ofillustrating the present invention, numeral 30 in FIG. 1 indicatesgenerally a conventional tufting machine which has push rods 31 whichare reciprocated along their respective axes upwardly and downwardly,the push rods being provided at their lower end with a transverselyextending needle bar support 32. The needle bar support 32 has, alongits lower surface, a pair of transversely extending, laterallyshiftable, parallel needle bars 35 and 36. The front needle bar 35 isprovided with a row of transversely aligned, front needles 37 and therear needle bar 36 is provided with a row of transversely aligned rearneedles 38.

The tufting machine 30 also has a bed 40, over which the backingmaterial 41 passes, the backing material 41 being disposed beneath theneedles 37 and 38, so that the needles 37 and 38 simultaneously insertyarns 72 and 73 through the hacking material, upon reciprocation of theneedle bar support 32.

Below the backing material 41 the tufting machine 30 in FIG. 1 isprovided with a plurality of cut pile loopers 42 the bills of whichextend forwardly opposite to the direction of travel of the backingmaterial 41 and cooperate with the rear needles 38 so as to catch andhold the loops of yarn sewn by these needles 38. These cut pile loopers42 are carried by looper block 43 supported by a rocker assembly,denoted generally by the numeral 44. According to the present invention,the number of loopers 42 may and usually do exceed, substantially, thenumber of needles 38 and are of a more narrow gauge than the gaugespacing of needles 38.

Each looper 42 is provided with cut pile knife blade 45 carried by ablock, such as block 46, the block 46 being supported at one end of astaff 47 which extends upwardly from the staff supporting bar 48 on aknife rocker assembly, denoted generally by numeral 49. The loops ofyarn gathered by loopers, such as looper 42, are urged rearwardly of themachine 30 as they are carried by the backing material 41 and so thatthe loops are eventually pulled into the path of the knife blades, suchas blade 45, and are severed or cut while they remain on the cut pileloopers 42. Thus all of the tufts accumulated on the cut pile loopers 42will eventually be cut pile tufts.

Forwardly of the cut pile loopers 42 are the loop pile loopers, such aslooper 50 in FIG. 1, each looper 50 being carried by a looper block 51supported on a staff 52, from a loop pile rocker assembly, denotedgenerally by numeral 34.

In the present invention, the needle bars 35 and 36 are controlled by apair of needle bar shift controls, denoted by the numerals 55 and 56 inFIG. 2. The needle bar shift control 55 includes a rotatable cam disc57, rotatable about a fixed axis, the disc 57 being provided with aperipheral cam surface 57a having recesses and protrusions. A camfollower 60 rides along the peripheral cam surface 57a of the disc 57and is carried by a shiftable frame 62. A second cam follower (notshown) is diametrically opposed to follower 60, also on frame 62. Inlike fashion, a second cam disc 58 has a peripheral cam surface 58awhich engages cam followers, such as cam follower 61 to move a frame 68.

As seen in FIG. 2, the cam discs 57 and 58 are adapted to control,respectively, the lateral shifting of the needle bars 35 and 36, theperipheries of the disc forming camming surfaces 57a and 58a,respectively.

Cam followers, such as cam followers 60 and 61, on the respective shiftcontrols 55 and 56, ride along the peripheries 57a and 58a of disc 57and 58 so as to move the frames 62 and 68 laterally, as dictated by theperipheries 57a and 58a. The frames 62 and 68, in turn, are connected,via push rods 63 and 64, to links 65 and 66. Links 65 and 66, in turn,manipulate respectively the control rods 70 and 71, seen in FIG. 1,which protrude from the ends of needle bars 35 and 36.

Yarns 72 and 73 from yarn sources 74 and 75, such as creels or beams,are withdrawn at uniform rates and passed through yarn guides 41 and 42to the needles 37 and 38, the yarns 72 being fed to the back or reartransverse row of needles 38 and the yarns 73 being fed to the fronttransverse row of needles 37. Patterned high-low loop tufts can bereadily produced by substituting a conventional yarn control mechanismfor the yarn source 75.

An important feature of the present invention is that the bills of frontloopers 50 are respectively aligned with the bills of rear loopers 42.In FIG. 3, 4 and 5 are shown different arrangements of needles 37 and 38with respect to the loopers 42 and 50, the needles which are substitutedfor front needles 37 being labeled needles 37a, 37b, 37c and the needlessubstituted for needles 38 being labeled 38a, 38b, and 38c.

In FIG. 3 pairs of needles 37a are spaced from each other by a spacingtwice as wide as the spacing of their associated loopers 50 and the rearneedles 38a are spaced from each other by a spacing which is three timesthe spacing of its associated loopers 42. Thus, through appropriatelateral shifting of one or both needle bars 35 and 36 for the needles37a and 38a, by one, two or three loopers, left or right, only oneneedle 37a or needle 38a is sewing in a prescribed longitudinal row.

In FIG. 4, the front needles 37b, are arranged in spaced pairs along thetransverse length of the tufting machine whereby the axes of the needles37b of each pair are one gauge apart and the space between the axes ofthe adjacent needles 37b in adjacent pairs are spaced apart by aplurality (two) gauges.

The center lines of the adjacent front loop pile loopers 50 are allevenly transversely spaced apart by a single gauge while the centerlines of the adjacent cut pile loopers 42 are evenly transversely spacedapart by a single gauge, the loop pile loopers 50 being respectivelylongitudinally aligned with each other.

The front loop pile loopers 50 are all in transverse alignment with eachother and the cut pile loopers 42 are transversely aligned with eachother. Furthermore, all of the cut pile loopers 42 rock forward as theloop pile loopers 50 rock forwardly and vice versa. The loopers 42 and50 do not move laterally but simply rock toward and away from eachother. Thus, when a needle 37a, 37b or 37c is appropriately positionedlaterally, by one, two or three or more gauges, it is moved downwardlyadjacent a prescribed looper 50 so that a loop of yarn 73 will be caughtand momentarily held by the looper 50 and released after the needle 37a,37b or 37c is retracted from backing 41.

In like fashion, the needles 38a, 38b or 38c are shifted laterally byone, two or three or more gauges and are moved downwardly, and theiryarns are caught and cut by the cut pile looper assembly.

To synchronize the cams, the actions of the rear cam should be delayedfrom the action of the front cam, so that with a 3/8 " stagger for theneedles and 8 stitches per inch, there should be a 3 stitch cam delayfor the back cam with respect to the front cam; with 10.68 stitches/inchthere should be a 4 stitch cam delay for the back cam with respect tothe front cam; and with 13.33 stitches/inch there should be a 5 stitchcam delay between the front and back cam. With 16 stitches/inch a 6stitch cam delay is required.

This is calculated in that a stagger of 0.375 inches or 3/8 inchesdivided by cam delay in revolutions equals the length of each stitch.Thus, the longitudinal distance between the center lines of front andback rows of needles, divided by the cam delay in revolutions of themachine equals the longitudinal distance between adjacent stitches(length of each stitch).

In FIG. 3 it is seen that the rear needles 38a are spaced from eachother so as to provide one needle for every third looper 42 and thateach of the front needles are arranged in adjacent pairs, there being aspace of one looper between each pair of adjacent needles. By such anarrangement, the fabric depicted in FIGS. 7 and 8 may be provided. Thus,without shifting the front needle bar, spaced rows of loop pile tufts137a are sewn along spaced, parallel lines and the cut pile tufts 138aare produced by lateral shifting of the rear needle bar so as to producein the backing material 41a a plurality of cut pile tufts in which theyarns 72 form the back stitches seen in FIG. 8 and the yarns 73 form theloop pile tufts 137a.

By laterally shifting the back needle bar only, the yarns 72, which arevaried in color from the yarns 73 and can be varied in color from eachother, produce a back stitch as indicated in FIG. 8 and the tuftsindicated by numeral 138a, in the backing material 41a.

In FIGS. 9 and 10 is shown a tufting arrangement which is accomplishedutilizing the needle spacing of FIG. 4. Here, by lateral shifting ofboth needle bars, the loop pile tufts 137b and the cut pile tufts 138bare produced in the backing material 41, the back stitching being formedby the yarns 72 and 73 as depicted in FIG. 10.

In FIGS. 11 and 12 are shown a pattern which can be produced utilizingthe needle spacing depicted in FIG. 5. Here, the pairs of front needles37c produce the tufts 137c as the back needles 38c produce the loop piletufts 138c, the back stitching therefor being shown in FIG. 12. Hereboth needle bars are shifted and the yarns 72 produce the loop piletufts 137c as the yarns 73 produce the cut pile tufts 138c.

By providing a spacing of more than one looper between selected needles,and through appropriate shifting laterally of the needle bars, singlelongitudinal rows of tufts which selectively have both loop pile and cutpile are produced, as illustrated in FIGS. 7, 9, and 11.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many variations maybe made in the embodiment here chosen for the purpose of illustratingthe present invention, without departing from the scope thereof asdefined by the appended claims.

We claim:
 1. A tufting machine, for tufting yams in a backing materialpassing longitudinally in a downstream direction through said tuftingmachine, comprising: a plurality of front loop pile loopers transverselyarranged across a width of said tufting machine with each of said fromloop pile loopers spaced from an adjacent front loop pile looper by apredetermined distance;a plurality of rear cut pile loopers transverselyarranged across said width of said tufting machine with each of saidrear cut pile loopers spaced from an adjacent rear cut pile looper bysaid predetermined distance so that said front loop pile loopers arelongitudinally aligned with said rear cut pile loopers, said rear cutpile loopers being spaced from said front loop pile loopers in saiddownstream direction; a first set of front needles aligned with eachother across said width of said tufting machine between said frontloopers and said rear loopers, said first set of front needles beingfewer in number than said plurality of front loopers; and a second setof rear needles aligned with each other across said width of saidtufting machine between said front needles and said rear loopers, saidsecond set of rear needles being fewer in number than said plurality ofrear loopers.
 2. The tufting machine as set forth in claim 1, furthercomprising a shifting mechanism for shifting said first set of frontneedles across said width of said tufting machine.
 3. The tuftingmachine as set forth in claim 2, wherein said shifting mechanism shiftssaid first set of front needles in multiples of said predetermineddistance.
 4. The tufting machine as set forth in claim 1, furthercomprising a shifting mechanism for shifting said second set of rearneedles across said width of said tufting machine.
 5. The tuftingmachine as set forth in claim 4, wherein said shifting mechanism shiftssaid second set of rear needles in multiples of said predetermineddistance.
 6. A carpet tufting machine for passing a backing materiallongitudinally in a direction of feed and for placing yams in saidbacking material in longitudinal tuft rows, including a support framehaving a bed, push rods supported by said frame and disposed over saidbed, transversely shiftable front and rear needle bars suspended by saidpush rods over said bed, front needles arranged in a row carried by saidfront needle bar; rear needles arranged in a row carried by said rearneedle bar, shifting mechanisms cooperating with said needle bars formoving said needle bars transversely with respect to said longitudinaldirection of feed, a first yam source disposed adjacent to said framefor supplying first yams to said front needles and a second yam sourcedisposed adjacent to said frame for supplying second yams to said rearneedles, front and rear loopers disposed below said bed, and arranged intransverse rows of loopers to cooperate with said needles, theimprovement comprising:said front loopers being loop pile loopers andsaid rear loopers being cut pile loopers, said front loopers extendingin the direction of feed of said backing material and said rear loopersextending opposite the direction of feed of said backing material, andwherein each of said loopers being spaced from a transversely adjacentlooper a prescribed gauge such that the number of said loopers are atleast twice the number of said needles, said front loopers and said rearloopers being in sufficient longitudinal alignment and said frontneedles being spaced from said rear needles a sufficient distance topermit said first yams to be tufted in a first longitudinal tuft row andsaid second yams also to be tufted in said first longitudinal tuft rowupon shifting of said front and rear needle bars, said front needles andsaid rear needles being arranged in spaced groups.
 7. A carpet tuftingmachine for passing a backing material longitudinally in a direction offeed and for placing yarns in said backing material in longitudinal tuftrows, including a support frame having a bed, push rods supported bysaid frame and disposed over said bed, transversely shiftable front andrear needle bars suspended by said push rods over said bed, frontneedles arranged in a row carried by said front needle bar; rear needlesarranged in a row carried by said rear needle bar, shifting mechanismscooperating with said needle bars for moving said needle barstransversely with respect to said longitudinal direction of feed, afirst yam source disposed adjacent to said frame for supplying firstyarns to said front needles and a second yam source disposed adjacent tosaid frame for supplying second yarns to said rear needles, front andrear loopers disposed below said bed, and arranged in transverse rows ofloopers to cooperate with said needles, the improvement comprising:saidfront loopers being loop pile loopers and said rear loopers being cutpile loopers, said front loopers extending in the direction of feed ofsaid backing material and said rear loopers extending opposite thedirection of feed of said backing material, and wherein each of saidloopers being spaced from a transversely adjacent looper a prescribedgauge such that the number of said loopers are at least three times thenumber of said needles, said front loopers and said rear loopers beingin sufficient longitudinal alignment and said front needles being spacedfrom said rear needles a sufficient distance to permit said first yarnsto be tufted in a first longitudinal tuft row and said second yarns alsoto be tufted in said first longitudinal tuft row upon shifting of saidfront and rear needle bars, said from needles and said rear needlesbeing arranged in spaced groups.
 8. A carpet tufting machine for passinga backing material longitudinally in a direction of feed and for placingyarns in said backing material in longitudinal tuft rows, including asupport frame having a bed, push rods supported by said frame anddisposed over said bed, a drive mechanism for driving said push rods,transversely shiftable front and rear needle bars suspended by said pushrods over said bed, front needles arranged in a row carried by saidfront needle bar, rear needles arranged in a row carried by said rearneedle bar, shifting mechanisms cooperating with said needle bars formoving said needle bars transversely with respect to said longitudinaldirection of feed, a first yarn source disposed adjacent to said framefor supplying first yarns to said front needles and a second yarn sourcedisposed adjacent to said frame for supplying second yarns to said rearneedles, from and rear loopers disposed below said bed, and arranged intransverse rows of loopers to cooperate with said needles, theimprovement comprising:said front loopers being loop pile loopers andextending toward said rear loopers in the direction of backing materialfeed, said rear loopers being cut pile loopers and extending toward saidfront loopers opposite the direction of backing material feed, saidneedles of said front needle bar and said rear needle bar being arrangedin spaced groups, said shifting mechanism for said rear needle bar beingselectively controllable to impart a delay in shifting said rear needlebar, and said yarns being placed in said backing in spaced, adjacenttufts in said longitudinal tuft rows, said longitudinal distance betweenadjacent tufts equal to the longitudinal distance between said row ofneedles along said front needle bar and said row of needles on said rearneedle bar divided by the stitch delay per revolutions of said mainshaft to permit tufts of said second yarns to be placed in the samelongitudinal row as said tufts of said first yarns.
 9. A carpet tuftingmachine for passing a backing material longitudinally in a direction offeed and for placing yarns in said backing material in longitudinal tuftrows, including a support frame having a bed, push rods supported bysaid frame and disposed over said bed, transversely shiftable front andrear needle bars suspended by said push rods over said bed, frontneedles arranged in a row carried by said front needle bar, rear needlesarranged in a row carried by said rear needle bar, shifting mechanismscooperating with said needle bars for moving said needle barstransversely with respect to said longitudinal direction of feed, afirst yarn source disposed adjacent to said frame for supplying firstyarns to said front needles and a second yarn source disposed adjacentto said frame for supplying second yarns to said rear needles, front andrear loopers disposed below said bed, and arranged in transverse rows ofloopers to cooperate with said needles, the improvement comprising:saidfront loopers being longitudinally in line in the direction of feed withsaid rear loopers, said front loopers comprising loop pile loopers andsaid rear loopers comprising cut pile loopers, said row of front loopersbeing more in number than said number of said front needles and said rowof rear loopers being more in number than said rear needles, and thebills of said front loopers extending in the direction of feed and thebills of said rear loopers extending opposite the direction of feed, andwherein said needles are arranged in spaced groups.
 10. A carpet tuftingmachine for passing a backing material along a longitudinal path in adirection of feed and for placing tufts of first and second yarns spacedin longitudinal tuft rows in said base fabric comprising:(a) a frame;(b) a bed supported by said frame; (c) push rods journeled by said framefor reciprocation upwardly and downwardly; (d) a front needle bar and arear needle bar supported by said push rods for separate!reciprocationwith said push rods; (e) a drive mechanism carried by said frame fordriving the reciprocation of said push rods and said needle bars; (f) afront shifting mechanism cooperating with said front needle bar and arear shifting mechanism cooperating with said rear needle bar; (g) frontloop pile loopers disposed in a transverse front row of loopers belowsaid bed for cooperating with said front needles and the bills of saidloop pile loopers extending in said direction of feed of said backingmaterial; (h) rear cut pile loopers disposed in a transverse rear row ofloopers below said bed for cooperating with said rear needles and thebills of said cut pile loopers extending opposite said direction of feedof said backing material; (i) said needles in said front row of needlesbeing fewer in number than said loopers in said front row of loopers;(j) said needles in said rear row of needles being fewer in number thansaid loopers in said rear row of loopers; (k) said loopers in said fromrow of loopers being in line in the direction of feed of said basefabric with the said loopers in said rear row of loopers; and (l) saidneedles being selectively arranged in spaced groups to permit tufts ofsaid first yarns to be intermixed with tufts of said second yarns in thesame longitudinal tuft rows in a predetermined pattern.
 11. The tuftingmachine defined in claim 10, and the number of loopers in said front rowof loopers substantially exceeding the number of needles in said frontrow of needles.
 12. The tufting machine defined in claim 11, and thenumber of loopers in said rear row of loopers substantially exceedingthe number of needles in said rear row of needles.
 13. The tuftingmachine defined in claim 10, and the number of loopers in said rear rowof loopers substantially exceeding the number of needles in said rearrow of needles.
 14. The tufting machine defined in claim 10, and theloopers in said front row of loopers being spaced at a more narrow gaugethan the gauge of the needles in said front row of needles.
 15. Thetufting machine defined in claim 10, and the loopers in said rear row ofloopers being spaced at a more narrow gauge than the gauge of theneedles in said rear row of needles.
 16. The tufting machine defined inclaim 10 and the loopers in said front row of loopers being of a morenarrow gauge than the gauge of the needles of the front row of needlesand the loopers of the rear row of loopers being of a more narrow gaugethan the gauge of the needles of the rear row of needles.
 17. Method oftufting carpet in which a longitudinal tuft row is created in a backingmaterial, said longitudinal tuft row comprising mils of first yarns andof second yarns, comprising the steps of:(a) feeding said backingmaterial in a longitudinal path; (b) disposing a front needle bar and arear needle bar each having needles in spaced groups above said backingmaterial (c) disposing front loop pile loopers and rear cut pile loopersbelow said backing material, the total number of said front and rearloopers being at least twice the total number of said needles in saidfront and rear needle bars; (d) inserting a first yarn into said backingmaterial by moving said from needle bar toward said backing material sothat the spaced groups of needles of said front needle bar penetratesaid backing material; (e) creating a loop from said first yarns; (f)repeating steps (a)-(e) until a first longitudinal row of looped tuftsis created; (g) shifting said rear needle bar; (h) inserting a secondyarn into said backing material in said first longitudinal row by movingsaid rear needle bar toward said backing material so that the spacedgroups of needles of said rear needle bar penetrate said backingmaterial; (i) creating a loop from said second yarn; (j) cutting saidloop of said second yarn; and (k) repeating steps (h)-(j), wherein saidlongitudinal row is comprised of looped tufts of said first yarnsintermixed with cut tufts of said second yarns.
 18. Method of tuftingcarpet in a carpet tufting machine for passing a backing material alonga longitudinal path and inserting first and second yarns into saidbacking material, said tufting machine having a frame, a drive mechanismcarried by said frame, push rods attached to and driven by said drivemechanism, a front needle bar and rear needle bar carried by said pushrods for reciprocating movement, a bed supported by said frame belowsaid needle bars, front loop pile loopers disposed below said bed andextending in the direction of said longitudinal path, rear cut pileloopers disposed below said bed and extending opposite said longitudinalpath and shifting mechanisms for shifting said needle bars, comprisingthe steps of:(a) feeding said backing material along said longitudinalpath across said bed; (b) inserting said first yarns in spaced groupsinto said backing material by reciprocating said from needle bar towardsaid bed; (c) creating loops of said first yarns in said backingmaterial in longitudinal rows by moving said loop pile loopers towardsaid needles of said front needle bar and reciprocating said frontneedle bar away from said bed; (d) shifting said rear needle bartransversely; (e) inserting said second yarns in spaced groups into saidbacking material by reciprocating said rear needle bar toward the bed;(f) creating loops of said second yarns in said backing material inlongitudinal rows by moving said rear row of loopers toward said rearrow of needles and reciprocating said rear row of needles away from saidbed; (g) cutting said loops of said second yarns; and (h) repeatingsteps (a)-(g) so that longitudinal tuft rows are created in said backingmaterial, said tuft rows including looped tufts created from said firstyarns and cut tufts created from said second yarns.
 19. The method oftufting carpet defined in claim 18, wherein the total number of loopersare at least twice the total number of needles in the front and rearneedle bars.
 20. The method of tufting carpet defined in claim 18,wherein the total number of loopers is at least three times the totalnumber of needles in the front and rear needle bars.